SoD Starter Pack /w UF from Steam
 

Just for the fun of it, I downloaded the Seeds of Destruction starter pack
from Steam that has the Underfoot client in it. I've been playing around
logging on to my own server and so far, haven't found any problems yet.
Although the quest, etc are not working in the UF zones, I could still zone
in to Foundation and die (chuckle).
I was using the older SoD client I got from Steam, but this newer one
seems to work just fine (so far).
I did have a little prob when I first tried to launch it, but after I deleted
the FIRST 3 "extra" files shown in the main EQ folder, it launched fine.
(These 3 files were listed just before the "abysmal.emt" file)
I downloaded this client simply for future reference, it was only $20.

things i have noticed that need fixed still.

universal chat server (dont connect)
ldon adventure window (doesnt show your points)
expendable AA dont work or show correctly
Combat skills windows (descriptions of each one, just says unknown db string)

Not connecting to the UCS is because one of the opcodes is wrong. Even with the right opcode, it rejects chat/commands with a message 'Channel(20) not implemented'.
I've looked into this a few times but haven't been able to figure it out.

This is because the PlayerProfile is wrong. I have it fixed locally but was planning to check out other PP fields around the same area in case there are other things misaligned around there.

These last two appear to be due to the fact that the dbstr_us.txt file delivered by Steam is truncated at 364,320 bytes when it should be 2.5MB+

If the last line in your dbstr_us.txt file is:
Then this is the problem. There is no solution other than to copy the dbstr_us.txt from a SoD or Live install.
I copied my SoD version and the Disc and Expendable AA messages now show up.

Also the expendable AA work fine without the dbstr from SoD or Live just hard to know what they are before you buy unless you look in a DB or the file.

I just checked, since I have both the older SoD client from Steam and the
newer one with UF client installed. The dbstr_us.txt file was 2.5MB in
the old one and 355KB in the new one, so I copied the old one over.

I was curious though, if I copy the spell txt files (_us & _en) over to the
eqemu directory from the Steam "UF" client, would it doing any good or
harm ?

Has the correct opcode been put into the svn? I ask because I was unable to even get the client to so much as send a single packet to the chat server. Or am I just being dense about something?

(hey, it's 2:30am and i'm tired, lol)

Not yet, I think it is just OP_SetChatServer2 that is wrong:
I've been looking at it some more this morning, but still no closer to working it out.

Commands like /join, /list, and reading mail works, however sending mail or trying to chat in a channel produces the 'Channel (20) not implemented' message.

Also, if you connect to Live, but redirect it to use your local UCS, e.g. by putting something like this in your c:\windows\system\drivers\etc\hosts.

(You will also need to hack the UCS source to bypass any mail key authentication).

Then the client appears to connect to your local UCS but you don't get the channel not implemented command, but the client ignores attempts to chat in channels
(although /join /list still work).

I'm wondering whether chat is now somehow linked with the in-game voice system, which we obviously don't support.

That sounds possible, even likely. One unified system that they can roll out for all of their games. I wonder if they licensed a well known voice system for use rather than recreating everything.

Have you done packet traces of the interaction with live? If so, does voice on live appear to go through a different server than chat?

I know I'm not being much help here, but it sounds like this problem won't be solved without more information about how it works on live. I, unfortunately, do not have a live account. But I'd love to help with this if there is anything I can do.

Not sure if this is relevant or helpful, but my UF client has something my Sod client does not have which is a file called EQVoiceService.exe

Messages are being sent to zone since that's from Client::ChannelMessageReceived()

It sounds like there's probably going to have to be a closer coupling of the chat and zone than there already is to support the newer clients.

Wow. I was looking through eqstr_us.txt, eqgame.exe and various DLLs trying to see where that message was coming from. It never occurred to me that it could come from zone!

Nice find :)

Just done a few live traces and indeed UCS chat, sending mail, /friend etc are now relayed through zone on chat channel 20.

Zone must then forward them onto the UCS for delivery, since when I receive a chat message from someone else, it doesn't appear in the zone trace.

Wonder why they did that ...

Probably easiest to have a single connection between World and UCS, rather than each zone server establishing it's own connection.

Also it would probably make sense to have World just listen for an incoming connection from UCS, rather than the other way around.

The scary thing is I didn't even have to look at the code, I just knew where it was in the code. I am becoming way too familiar with this thing.

anyone else have issue with some weapon graphics? toon with SoD shows weapon (greatstaff of thunder). but if i switch to the underfoot, it does not show it. just empty handed.